When people drive under the influence, blood tests show that it’s not always from alcohol. The San Diego Sheriff’s Department is creating a process to test more than 100 intoxicants to determine what’s creating danger on the road.
The sheriff’s crime lab received a $1 million grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to do this testing.
At least half of all drivers arrested for DUI have more than one drug in their system, said Jennifer Harmon, director of the San Diego Sheriff’s crime lab. She added that any one of a long list of intoxicants can make someone dangerous behind the wheel.
“The most common drugs we find in a person who is stopped, in addition to alcohol, is cannabis, methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl,” Harmon said. “We also see Xanax, which is a prescription medication.”
Harmon said by summer next year, they also want to bring all the toxicology tests in-house to their lab, rather than contract them out.
“The intention of the grant is to provide staff ... comprehensive testing so we can test drivers for a comprehensive list of drugs,” she said.
With drugs other than alcohol, blood content isn’t always a good test whether someone is impaired.
A UC San Diego study, published in January, showed that while about 50% of people who just smoked marijuana were impaired behind the wheel, their impairment was unrelated to the content of THC found in their blood.
To determine whether someone is impaired after using cannabis or fentanyl needs to be done the old fashioned way. That’s when a police officer observes their behavior, and makes them perform a standardized field test.
“We’re not looking to say, ‘this person has meth in their system’ or ‘this person has fentanyl,’” said Sgt. Eric Cottrell with the traffic division of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. “We’re saying you are impaired and you’re unable to drive safely on the roadway.”
Blood testing of an impaired driver requires a warrant, which can happen when a driver refuses a blood or a breath test. The point, of course, is to get dangerous drivers off the road.
“If you are impaired and you're on the roadway and you are driving, you are putting in danger everyone that is around you,” Cottrell said.
A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found nationwide, more than 200 people were killed in impaired driving crashes during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays at the turn of 2020.
